[IPython-dev] Multiple outputs per input line

[Thomas Kluyver]

On 14 March 2011 08:11, Fernando Perez <fperez.net at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> This would let us have always unambiguous storage of outputs by number
> even if multiple outputs were produced.  The only change would be that
> in such a scenario, the next input wouldn't be 'previous+1' but
> instead it would be incremented by as many outputs as came out.
>

To my mind, the principle of least surprise suggests that inputs should be
consecutively numbered, and output numbers should match up to their input
numbers. That also makes it simple to later match up corresponding inputs
and outputs. Of course, we could match up based on interleaving a sequence
of input and output, but it seems needlessly complex.

I can see how I'd implement storing multiple outputs if we want to do so -
the outputs from one input command would go together in a list. If we think
this is worth doing, I'll go and write it. I'm just checking whether we want
the extra complexity, because I don't believe I've ever used multiple
outputs until I was fiddling around yesterday.

In fact, having thought about how I would do it, I'll code it up in a bit,
and we can discuss a real system, rather than a hypothetical one.

Thanks,
Thomas
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